The demon Piccolo

[Herms]

Something I see on a fairly regular basis is people saying that Piccolo wasn’t ever really a demon, he just got labeled as one because at the time none of the characters knew he was Namekian. This is incorrect. Or at least, not based on anything said in the actual series. It’s probably high time I make a thread giving a proper run-down of the matter.

A brief overview: first we meet Piccolo. He’s said to be a demon, a king of demons in fact, leader of the Demon Clan. A bit later we learn that Piccolo was born from all the evil that was in the heart of the dude who eventually became God of Earth; he had to kick that evil out to become God, and it formed into an evil doppelganger of himself. When the Saiyan arc rolls around, Vegeta and Nappa identify Piccolo as a Namekian. It turns out, the dude who became God of Earth originally came from Planet Namek, making his evil twin likewise Namekian.

So, first we’re told Piccolo is a demon. Later we’re told he’s a Namekian. This leads many people to say that Piccolo never really was a demon; he was just an ordinary Namekian all along. But nothing like this is ever stated in the series, and there’s no real reason it would have to be true. It’s a bit like saying that since we first learn Goku was raised by Grandpa Gohan, and later learn he’s a Saiyan, then Goku must have never been raised by Gohan. Piccolo’s actual origin never changes, after all: he was born from the evil in the heart of the dude who became God. He’s literally made out of evil. Saying “he’s no demon, he’s just a guy made out of evil” sounds a bit silly.

Let’s repeat that for emphasis: Piccolo is evil given physical form.

…Or at least that’s where he starts out, before getting reborn and merging with people left and right. He really is quite a bit like Boo. Once he starts being a nice guy, or at least not quite so super-evil, then we’re told that he’s “no longer the demon king of old”. By the time he re-merges with God in the Cell arc, he confidently declares that he’s no longer the demon king Piccolo, and in the anime version of the Boo arc Kuririn describes Piccolo as having “previously” been part of the Demon Clan. So it’s clear that he eventually stops being a demon, and it’s a little fuzzy exactly when the switch occurs, but the starting point is never in doubt. Piccolo was made out of evil.

Anyway, the character whose origin does get changed (or expanded on at least) is the God of Earth, aka the child of Katatz. He turns out to be from Namek, rather than Earth as was previously assumed. But what planet he’s from really shouldn’t have any impact on whether or not his evil twin counts as a demon; as we’ve seen, Piccolo is called a demon because he’s made out of evil. Imagine if, instead of an evil doppelganger, the child of Katatz created a robot duplicate of himself. When it turns out Katatz Jr. came from Namek rather than Earth, it wouldn’t make much sense to say that his duplicate must therefore not really be a robot.

Oh yeah, that’s another thing: everyone assumed Katatz Jr. was an Earthling, a “gifted martial artist” as he described himself. Nobody ever considered him to be a demon, as far as we see. Well, nobody except Goku, who mistakes him for Piccolo when they first meet. But apart from that, there’s nothing to suggest that stupid Earthlings considered Katatz Jr. to be a demon because of his Namekian features. Piccolo was the only one to get that label, and even Katatz Jr. himself thought of Piccolo as a demon. The common fan idea that Earth folks just mistook Piccolo for a demon because they’d never seen a Namekian before is at odds with the series.

So if it doesn’t come from the series, where does the idea that Piccolo was never really a demon come from? Well, for one thing, “so-called demon turns out to be an alien” is a stock sci-fi plot. Doctor Who abuses the hell out of it, to the point where they actually have an alien race called the Daemons, who hail from Planet Demos. The show can just drop in passing references to the Doctor defeating a “demon who came down from the sky”, without having to bother explaining that this was actually a space alien. Since it’s such a cliché, people are primed to assume that that’s what’s going on in DB, once they learn there’s a character described as both a demon and an alien. Ultimately though fantasy and sci-fi elements aren’t so sharply divided in DB. This is a series where when aliens die they go to the afterlife to be judged by a god straight out of Buddhist mythology, where a wizard travels to Earth in his spaceship, and where the titular wish-granting balls are created through alien sorcery. Having a character be both a demon and an alien is just what the series does.

The other big factor is probably the way Z continues to overshadow the earlier parts of the series. Piccolo’s origin and his relationship with the God of Earth are introduced and fully explained in the lead-up to the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai. There are a few recap explanations, more so in the anime, but they’re easier to miss or overlook compared to when these things form the backbone of the current storyline. Most fans these days still don’t get much exposure to anything from before when Raditz shows up, and tend to think of Piccolo as just Goku’s green rival. They may notice that he gets called a demon king, but they probably won’t know the full details on why, and when they reach the scene where Nappa and Vegeta identify him as a Namekian, they’ll assume that’s the whole story.

But, for the English-speaking fandom, perhaps the most important factor is the way the Funi dub tries to gloss over the idea of Piccolo being a demon as much as possible, due to their tendency to minimize religious references in the series. So instead of “demon king Piccolo”, they just call him “King Piccolo”. He’s sealed away not with the Demon Containment Wave, but rather the Evil Containment Wave. He doesn’t kill Raditz with the Demon Drill Beam Cannon, but instead the Special Beam Cannon. The name of the technique he teaches Gohan, Masenko (Demon Flash), they leave untranslated and unexplained. Overall, references to Piccolo as a demon in the Funi DB and DBZ dubs are thin on the ground from what I’ve seen, though I don’t know if Kai does better. It’s natural that people would have trouble accepting the idea that Piccolo’s an actual demon if they’re most familiar with a version of the franchise that generally doesn’t treat him as such. And from my (admittedly limited) experience, Japanese fans don’t seem to have this “Piccolo was never really a demon” idea; it seems to be mostly an English fandom phenomenon.

So, in conclusion…I don’t know. More fans should embrace the idea of Piccolo being both a demon and Namekian. Like Calvin said about the Tyrannosaurus Rex as predator, “he’s so much cooler that way”.

[coola]

In Polish version of anime (With was based on French) both Piccolo Daimao and Piccolo Jr. was called Satan Little Heart (From French Satan Petit Coeur) even after Jr. fused with God, while manga, with was translated from Japanese, Piccolo Daimao was called Satan Piccolo, he wasn`t even called a Demon, but Devil (Devil King, Devil powers) his reincarnation was also called Satan Piccolo, but, after fusion, it was just Piccolo, i cannot speak for all Polish fans, but i can imagine, that for most of them, Piccolo will always be Satan Piccolo, Devil incarnation.

[Cetra]

I never doubted that. Piccolo introduces the whole demon banishing rules through Kami because of Radditz, which got forgotten with Boo (though I could give an in-universe explanation for that that surely was not intended and it was just forgotten). However Piccolo seems to even lose bis whole demonic entity after his cruelty has gone and only mentions it again to Kuririn. Also the Mafuba worked on him - and Kami as he used a host which counted as possession.

With "Ma" being evil and demonic half of the DB characters are demons, though Chichi's father doesn't count.

[Tyro]

Not to mention that Raditz's soul was able to pass into the afterlife, the reason why God concluded that Piccolo Jr. was no longer the Daimao of old. Though this does leave me with the question: Why can demonic people become regular people by changing their personalities over time but evil people, like, slaughtering-a-lot-of-people-and-liking-it evil people, like the Saiyans, not be considered true demons? Is it really all about "race" in some sense?

[hleV]

Not to mention that Raditz's soul was able to pass into the afterlife, the reason why God concluded that Piccolo Jr. was no longer the Daimao of old. Though this does leave me with the question: Why can demonic people become regular people by changing their personalities over time but evil people, like, slaughtering-a-lot-of-people-and-liking-it evil people like the Saiyans not be considered true demons? Is it really all about "race" in some sense?

The Saiyans aren't born from evil, they're just scumbags in general.

[Tyro]

Right, I just think it's dumb that it doesn't work in reverse. If all it takes for a demon to become a regular Joe is to stop being evil (in the sense of killing a lot of people, I suppose), then it should flow in the other direction as well. Natural-born Earthlings and aliens should be able to become demons if they become evil and act on it.

[Fulicer]

In the (English) ultimate tenkaichi cutscenes there is a scene were Piccolo calls himself "the great demon king" -- right after Nappa kills him.
See here, I marked it to start at 3:35
http://youtu.be/rd-Szoj7W4k?t=3m35s
Edit: time stamp didn't work, just move play head to 3:35

It's not the main series, but it's something. The games and dub are slightly different adaptations of the original.

Even though Kai is accurate, they don't mention Piccolo being a demon either. In the Japanese version, Kami explains that Piccolo is not evil anymore because if he was, Goku would not be able to go to the afterlife without interruption (or something like that). That was left out of the FUNi dub. There is also a part where Piccolo talks about how Gohan will be part of the "demon clan" after he gives him his clothes and sword, and that was left out too.

[Herms]

In the (English) ultimate tenkaichi cutscenes there is a scene were Piccolo calls himself "the great demon king" -- right after Nappa kills him.

He says the same thing in the actual manga/anime as well. In fact, the tankoubon "character intro" pages keep listing him as Piccolo Daimao/Great Demon King Piccolo up until he arrives on Namek.

[ABED]

This isn't a contradiction, he can be both a Namekian and a demon. Kami came to Earth, and Piccolo Daimao is the evil part of him incarnate.

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

Great write-up. The fact that Picocolo loses his demon status through a moral transformation- something vague and a bit difficult to track for a character who is never very outgoing on his best days (or completely lost on the Z-first most of the world because they see only the second half of that change!)- is bound to rightly confuse people. I think even moreso than reconciling his simultaneous demonic and Namekain heritage at the start, since King Piccolo is indeed Kataz's Jr.'s giant negativity dump.

[mAcChaos]

Not to mention that Raditz's soul was able to pass into the afterlife, the reason why God concluded that Piccolo Jr. was no longer the Daimao of old. Though this does leave me with the question: Why can demonic people become regular people by changing their personalities over time but evil people, like, slaughtering-a-lot-of-people-and-liking-it evil people, like the Saiyans, not be considered true demons? Is it really all about "race" in some sense?

It's more that Piccolo Jr. was never a true demon, since he was not actually the original Piccolo but his reincarnation. So he had the potential to change.

Or at least that's how I look at it. It's very muddled. Piccolo Jr. is the reincarnation of his father, yet his own independent being.

[Attitudefan]

You guys are forgetting that the evil demon half and the heavenly good half reunited back into one, thus canceling out each other, returning back into one mortal soul.

After that, Piccolo is just a regular Namek.